Bring Me to Life
by project314
Summary: After Queen Bansheera's defeat, Ryan must to come to terms with his past and learn to lower his walls if he hopes to move forward with his life.
1. Restless

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_**After the Power: Bring Me to Life  
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_**Chapter 1**_

_**Restless  
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___(Original Posting Date: October 13th, 2009)_

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_Disclaimer: The characters? They ain't mine. They belong to Disney. Only thing that's mine here is the plot bunny._

_Special thanks on this one go to a really great friend who inspired me to break down my walls, she's like a wrecking ball in that way. Also, thanks to DarkHonda (Bite Your Tongue) and MagCat (Confessions on Rollerblades) for giving me my first glimpses of Ryelsey.  
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_"You're not going to lay a finger on me this time, Diabolico," Ryan swore as he rolled under the demon's staff. As soon as he was out of reach, he regained his footing and faced his foe, anticipating what the next attack would be._

_"Big words, considering you've yet to live up to them, boy," Diabolico sneered as he thrust his weapon forward. Ryan saw the move coming, however, and he sidestepped the sharpened edge of the weapon, which lodged itself firmly into the cave wall._

_Ryan couldn't hold back a smile as his adversary struggled to pull his staff loose. Even as he savored his momentary victory, he started to think ahead, deciding that now was the time to move in._

_Diabolico had barely managed to extricate his staff when Ryan's bare foot slammed violently into his chest plate, making him stagger back several steps._

_"Well done, Ryan," Diabolico commended him even as he took aim with his staff and fired an energy ball in his direction. Remembering the searing pain he'd felt the last time he'd been surprised by such a maneuver, Ryan didn't hesitate, throwing himself forward on the cave's floor. He fought through the pain as rocks scraped and cut away at his arms and chest, knowing that this was much better than the alternative, and, when he was back up, he launched himself back in the demon's direction, wresting the staff from his grip and shoving him back against the cave wall._

_"You've done it," Diabolico laughed as he found the tip of his own weapon pressed firmly against his throat. "After all this time, you've finally managed to defeat me. You are now ready to face your destiny."_

_Ryan slowly pulled the staff away before he handed it back to Diabolico, head slightly bowed in deference to the demon who had raised him since childhood._

_"Soon," Diabolico proclaimed as he looked at his young charge, "our time will arrive. As it is written, so shall it unfold. Before your twentieth birthday, Ryan, we will be freed and we will reclaim our rightful place from humanity. We will walk the surface once again and all will bow before our might."_

_Ryan followed Diabolico as they made their way to Queen Bansheera's throne room, a sanctum that was only accessible to the queen's inner circle of demons. Upon their arrival, they were surprised to find it empty. Ever since Ryan's arrival, Diabolico had reported daily to the Queen on his progress after their training sessions._

_While they stood in the center of the deserted room, Ryan noticed Diabolico tense up. "What is it?" he asked his mentor._

_"The sarcophagus that holds us in this forsaken prison has been opened," Diabolico informed him, rushing toward the room's exit. "We have been freed."_

_"I don't understand," Ryan said, frowning in confusion as he kept pace with Diabolico. "It's too early. The prophecy said this would happen months before my twentieth birthday, yet I'm only eighteen."_

_"There's been a shift," Diabolico explained. "The forces of darkness are at their most powerful and something unforeseen is happening. We mustn't let this opportunity slip through our fingers."_

_As they moved forward, they heard screams coming from the large chamber ahead. It was the room where the entrance to their prison was located. When they finally reached it, Diabolico pushed past the throngs of demons gathered, Ryan in tow._

_"Vypra, what is the meaning of this?" he asked his ally upon reaching her. Looking above, he saw the Queen firing off energy bolts at a force field that blocked their exit._

_"The lid of the sarcophagus was removed," she informed him, smiling darkly, casting a look upward. "Something filled with darkness, with the purest evil imaginable, attempted to free us."_

_"Then why are we still here?" Diabolico queried, loudly enough to be heard over the shouts of the demons and the Queen's screams._

_"This evil didn't come alone," Vypra stated, the contempt in her voice unmistakable. "Forces of good are trying to keep us trapped. One of them uses magicks to seal us in here while they attempt to replace the lid. But they won't be successful."_

_"No they won't," Diabolico confirmed. "In order to replace the lid on the sarcophagus, they need to lower the field. Otherwise, whoever is generating it will have to power it from inside the tomb and be prepared to spend eternity amidst us. No one would be willing to sacrifice so much."_

_Diabolico and Vypra laughed together as they looked at the Queen, who kept lashing out at the force field, knowing that their release was imminent._

_Next to them, Ryan gazed upward silently, ready to be out of the purgatory he'd spent the better part of his childhood in. He was ready to face the man who had let him fall to his death and the sister who had been more important than him. He was going to make them pay for the hell he had been put through and reign alongside the demons who had saved him._

_Ryan regained his focus when the excited screams of those around him gained in intensity and volume. The force field was down._

_But it quickly became apparent that the breach in the force field had nothing to do with the Queen's relentless assault on it when a man covered in skintight body armor dropped into the chamber, firing laser beams at the Queen and her followers, taking them off guard and drawing their attention away from the tomb's opening. Even as he fell, the force field above rematerialized._

_As soon as their attacker landed in their midst, the suit covering his body vanished into thin air, revealing the human features of a young man. Ryan looked on in shock, having not seen another human in over ten years._

_"He controls the field!" Queen Bansheera bellowed as she fired another energy ball at the field. "Destroy him, Diabolico!"_

_Ryan was surprised when Diabolico didn't obey the Queen's orders immediately. Every day, he spoke with great energy of the day they would be freed, of how much he hated being trapped in this dimension. If anything, Ryan would have expected him to charge the stranger the moment he had landed in the room._

_But it seemed the demon had other plans as he cast his eyes on him. "You want to leave this place, don't you Ryan?" he asked._

_Ryan nodded once, not certain as to what Diabolico was getting at. It was only when the demon offered him his staff that he understood. He reached out to take the weapon with a shaking hand._

_"Make me proud," Diabolico ordered._

_Ryan nodded once, his features showing his resolve. Looking up, he could see that the lid was slowly being pushed across the sarcophagus. Realizing he didn't have much time to take the stranger out, he charged in his direction, shoving aside the demons that stood in his way._

_Once he was close enough, he swung the staff in a wide arc with all his strength. It connected with the young man's chest, cracking many of his ribs, sending him flying several feet back. Not wasting a second, Ryan ran over to him and straddled his chest, pressing the length of the staff against his throat, rendering him unable to breathe._

_"You're not going to keep me here!" he screamed, even as the stranger desperately struggled to keep the force field up. Around them, he could hear the demons cheering him on._

_"Kill him!" the Queen ordered, urgency in her voice. As Ryan looked up, he realized that the lid was almost in place._

_"No!" Ryan screamed in desperation. He turned his attention back to the stranger and removed the staff from his throat. As the young man struggled to catch his breath, Ryan raised the staff in the air, knowing there was no other way. Closing his eyes, he hesitated a moment before driving the staff's sharpened edge down, drawing out an agonized howl that drowned out the frenzied cheers of the demons surrounding them._

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Ryan woke up with a start in his darkened bedroom. His heart was racing, his breathing was ragged and beads of perspiration covered his skin. Despite the warmth of his sheets, he couldn't help but shiver, as the young man's screams echoed in his mind.

The nightmares had begun shortly after the Lightspeed Rangers had finally defeated Queen Bansheera and her minions, banishing them once again to their otherworldly prison. For all those involved with the Lightspeed project, that had meant returning to their normal lives, free from the threat of the demons. For Ryan, however, it had meant being forced to face his own demons.

Only, he hadn't been ready for that. He hadn't been ready to face the things he had done and what he had lived through. Not now. Not when his father and sister were so happy to have him back. He couldn't ruin that for them by dragging them into his own personal hell.

Ryan realized they weren't completely oblivious to his distress, despite his best efforts to act as if everything was fine. His father had offered to arrange him a meeting with a therapist on a few occasions to help him deal with the transition while Dana multiplied the offers for activities they could do together.

Somehow, thinking of their caring made him feel a little better. Taking a deep breath, Ryan lay back down on his bed, hopeful that things would get better.

_To be continued..._


	2. Reaching Out

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Reaching Out**_

_(Original Posting Date: November 25th, 2012)_

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Disclaimer: As of this writing, the characters belong to Saban once again.

Many thanks for everyone who will have put up with a really long wait for this update. And a very special thank you to my best friend, to whom this story is dedicated to. We made a pact a couple weeks back, and she wanted me to write, so you all have her to thank for this.

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_Mariner Bay_

"Morning, Ry!" Dana greeted her brother with a smile when he made his way into the kitchen a few hours later. She stood behind the large island that was in the center of the room, applying the finishing touches to her current project. Before her were two plates on which stacks of pancakes were piled up, covered in fresh fruit and English cream.

"Dana, hey," Ryan responded, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee calling to him after yet another relatively sleepless night.

"Sit," Dana ordered him before he could go pour himself a cup. "I've got everything covered. Besides, you have a glass of homemade orange juice to get through first. Much healthier than coffee, although I'm guessing it won't give you the energy burst you're hoping for."

_Busted_, Ryan thought to himself as he took a seat on a stool that was set up on his side of the kitchen island. "I woke you up again last night?" he asked, his downcast eyes scanning the counter. "Sorry about that."

"Stop beating yourself up, you didn't wake me," Dana replied, pushing his plate in front of him. "I just can't ignore what's going on anymore. It's showing, Ryan. I can tell you're not getting proper sleep, and it doesn't take being woken up by your screams every other night for me to be able to do that. You're dealing with something major, and for some reason I can't figure out, you're determined to do it on your own. What's going on? Please tell me."

"The nightmares," Ryan started as he poked at the contents of his plate, "they're not dreams, Dana. They're memories. Every night, I find myself back there, back with Bansheera, Vypra, Diabolico, all of them, reliving the past."

"But they're gone, and you're safe now," Dana reassured him, her voice soft and comforting. "There's no need to be scared, no need to keep going there."

"It's not just them I see though," Ryan continued, raising his gaze to look his sister in the eyes, feeling his stomach turn and his eyes start to water up. "I see myself too, I see what I did."

"What did you do, Ryan?" Dana prodded.

"We had a chance to get out," Ryan started, remembering the scene that played out in his dreams every night. "But he wasn't going to let us be free."

"Who's 'he'?" Dana asked.

Ryan stayed silent for a moment, recalling the features of the young man who had stood in their midst, the man he'd killed.

"I-I'm sorry, Dana," Ryan apologized. "I can't... I'm not ready to talk about this."

"It's okay, Ryan," Dana said softly, coming around the island to give him a hug.

The moment her arms wrapped around him, Ryan felt something break inside. As he started to cry, Dana just held on tighter, promising him that everything would turn out fine.

* * *

_Angel Grove_

Bill Mitchell stood by his car in an otherwise deserted parking lot. On the roof of the vehicle lay a metal briefcase which bore the Lightspeed Rescue emblem on its side. In it were a memory drive on which all the information regarding the Lightspeed project had been copied, along with physical files containing the same data. Everything, ranging from the Rangers' profiles and the intelligence gathered on the demons to the schematics of the Lightspeed tech and Aquabase, was there.

He had arrived for their meeting somewhat early, the drive from Mariner Bay to Angel Grove having gone smoothly despite the influx of people showing up for the anniversary. After spending some time in the city, he had finally made his way to his destination.

As he waited for the young man who had himself given him the same briefcase a few years prior, Bill's thoughts went back to the events of the past few months, to the return of his son, to the fall of the demons, to his return to a normal life with his children.

A normal life. A return to normal. That's what he had hoped for. But it seemed he had hoped for too much. Since the demons had been defeated, he and Dana had been all too conscious of the changes in Ryan. The young man, who had been so focused and dedicated during their battle with the demons, had run out of enemies to fight as a Ranger, and was now faced with his own inner demons. He was also keeping his family and friends at a distance, unwilling to speak of the past, of feelings he seemed unable to put into words.

He had been warned that this would most likely happen, that Ryan's conscience and his guilt would catch up with him at some point, but he had been ill-equipped to know what to do, how to help. Perhaps today's meeting would give him something to work with.

As if in response to his thoughts, another car pulled up beside his. The man who stepped out to join him wore a black suit and a white shirt. He seemed different from the man he had met at his station a few years back. He had appeared more carefree back then.

"Tommy," he greeted warmly, reaching his hand out.

"Captain Mitchell, it's good to see you again," Tommy Oliver, the original Green Ranger replied, shaking his hand.

"Please, don't 'Captain' me," Bill said with a chuckle.

"I'll try my best," Tommy answered with a smile.

For a moment, Bill thought he was faced with the young man who had recruited him to head Lightspeed. Youthful, confident, idealistic, these traits had all been clearly visible when he'd first encountered Tommy. But all that seemed to be hidden beneath something, a layer of growing up perhaps. The dark suit, their current location, perhaps that had something to do with it.

"I see you brought it back," Tommy noted, his gaze aimed at the briefcase.

"Yes I did," Bill confirmed, grabbing the briefcase and handing it over. "Everything you asked for is in here."

"And the morphers?" Tommy asked.

"The Rangers held on to them, as you suggested," Bill answered.

"Good," Tommy said, setting the case down in his car's trunk. "The demons might be defeated, but you never know. The Lightspeed Rangers might need their powers again at some point. Maybe they'll be able to help another team of Rangers, much like the Galaxy Rangers came to their assistance a few months ago when Trakeena resurfaced."

The two men were silent then, Bill not knowing how to broach the subject that had been on his mind.

"So, how have things been for Ryan since he set down his morpher?" Tommy asked as they started to walk, seemingly reading his thoughts.

"They haven't exactly been easy," Bill admitted. "He's been having nightmares, although he hasn't told us anything about them. He's been isolating himself from his sister and from me, from his teammates. He's been pulling away from everyone, claiming to be fine, when it's apparent to us all that he isn't."

"Well, if I go back to my own experience as a Ranger," Tommy recalled, "back after I lost my powers for the first time and found myself sidelined from the battle against the forces of evil, I had my own share of nightmares, my own darkness to face. The reality is, at the beginning of my stint as the Green Ranger, my actions did hurt people and cost some their lives. When the action stopped, when I stopped redeeming myself, that's when I found myself faced with that reality."

"I didn't speak about it with anyone. I already knew what my teammates would have told me, that I wasn't responsible for the actions I had committed while under Rita Repulsa's spell, and I didn't want to hear it. They would have wanted to pull me out of the darkness I was falling in, but I didn't want to be pulled out, I didn't feel I deserved to be pulled out, to be saved. My conscience was punishing me, and I felt I deserved that. I get the sense that Ryan's in the same place right now."

"Could you maybe speak with him?" Bill asked. "He could use someone he would identify with right now."

"I'm sorry, Bill," Tommy replied. "Ryan chose to follow the demons. Unlike me, he wasn't under a spell. What he did, he chose to do."

"He was in that hell dimension for fourteen years," Bill defended his son. "What choice did he have?"

"Understand me, Bill," Tommy said, "I'm not faulting Ryan. Quite the opposite, actually. I think it took a great deal of inner strength and a heart that was inherently pure and good at its core for him to be able to break free of their hold so quickly after he was out of that dimension. Still, I can't help him."

"Can't or won't?" Bill challenged.

"When I served the forces of evil," Tommy explained, "I was under a spell. The guilt I carried afterwards for my actions and the pain and damage I caused is different from what Ryan is carrying. It doesn't compare. I can't identify with Ryan's experience."

"Is there anything you can do for him, Tommy?" Bill pleaded. "I lost him once to the demons. I can't lose him again."

"I already have," Tommy assured as he stopped and turned to face him. "I can't tell you more about it for the time being, but I'm going to ask you to trust me. Ryan will be fine. I promise he's going to get through this."

"Thank you," Bill said.

"You can thank me when this is all behind us," Tommy said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's something I need to do. It was good seeing you again."

Tommy then made his way towards a small group of people, also dressed in black. Just like him, most of them carried flowers, and they were gathered in front of a pair of headstones.

Watching them, Bill was soon overcome by sadness and gratitude. Sadness because it was obvious to him that, on the anniversary of the fall of Dark Specter, Tommy's presence here could only be to honor the fall of former teammates. Gratitude because his team's battle against the forces of evil had not led to any of them losing their lives.

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_Mariner Bay_

Later that morning, Ryan left the Mitchell residence for his daily jog, this time accompanied by his sister. After his breakdown, the two hadn't further discussed the secrets that were buried in his past. Dana had chosen to ease off and she had suggested to join him on a run, something that would take his mind off things.

As the Mitchell siblings took off at a brisk pace, they were unaware of the fact they were being watched. When they were out of sight, the woman who had been watching them stepped out from behind the tree that had been concealing her. Soon, she would approach him.

_To be continued..._

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_Thanks for reading! I know that this chapter raises some questions. Some will be answered in this story (what's with that dream and who's the mystery woman?) while others will be answered elsewhere (Rangers died during Countdown to Destruction?). _

_For those of you who are scratching your heads after having read the scene between Bill Mitchell and Tommy, I'd suggest you go take a look at another story I started and plan on getting back to, Power Rangers: Countdown. That whole deal is explained in the first few chapters there._

_A big thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 1 since it went up: Iron-Mantis, BoukenGreen, PurpleRanger101, MagCat, RPM Shadow, taylorearhardtmyers, snake screamer, dewey32, StarzGirl09, Ghostwriter, Kh350 & Guest!_


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